Ashley Conquers Wildwood

On Saturday Team Rash set out to conquer the WildWood Trail in Forest Park beginning at Mile 0 at the Portland zoo and ending at Newberry road 30.25 miles away. We dropped Ashley's vehicle off first and then both of us drove to the starting point. It was a gloomy cold day with intermittent monsoons! Everything was going great until near the halfway point we started running behind another runner which was a very comfortable pace and it was just fun to chase someone. Then all of a sudden on one of the descents my left foot/ankle or fankle began to really hurt! I didn't twist it or anything it just began to hurt and progressively get worse until I was reduced to walk. We were around 13 mile mark at this point and starting to get cold with the reduction of speed. I kept thinking of our race this Sunday and decided that it wasn't wise to go on if I want any chance of racing 31 miles in a week. So the original plan was for Ashley to haul a$$ to Newberry road 16 something miles away and come get me at the trailhead, but after waiting about 2 minutes in the frickin ice rain and being sweaty and soaked I decided to knock on the door of what appeared to be a friendly house no confederate flags or mean mutts so I knocked. A nice mom let me use her phone to call a cab...... an hour and a half later no cab and still raining I figured Ashley wouldn't be there for another hour and forty minutes so I ended up hitchhiking from another runner and his labrodoodle I think he felt sympathy for me I looked pretty bad at that point shoeless, shivering, covered in mud I mean covered, and holding a bag of ice that was given to me by the friendly neighbor.....So I got my jeep and drove to Ashelys Jeep and left her a note explaining the survival story the irony of it is I was only home 15minutes before her! The good thing is the 'ASH' part of Team RASH made it the whole Trail which is an awesome accomplishment and I am proud of her. I did some research on my freak injury and it is not so freak and lots of runners experience it I self diagnosed it as Peroneal Tendonitis It is the tendon that runs under the lateral malleolus I guess I don't know feels like a frickin snake bite, they recommend ice and rest which is easier said then done when your used to running 80 miles a week you cant just REST! So I have been lifting weights and punching the punching bag which helps I can only pray it is ok by Sunday.

Other good news is Brent is visiting us June 1st -4th we cant wait! He said he wanted to camp I said " well you have three options do you want a. ocean b. waterfalls or c. mountains" he picked a. so I think we are going back to Pacific City to find Moby in the bay!

Dear Marcus and Ella

Hi Marcus I just wanted to illustrate a couple of possible differences in your life if you were to move out to Oregon

Oh looks like another sold out show

There you are on the drums

a nice Sunday hike in Chicago

Endless trails out your door

Current Art project or works of Art

Miss you guys

Life's a Beach

This week was a recovery week from race training so we took full advantage. The weather this weekend was warm and sunny. For the most part that is, we took the top and doors off the jeep and drove to Pacific City. We knew that it would be cooler driving through the Coastal Range, but 30 degrees cooler!?! We were freezing!! Ashley in her sundress, me in t-shirt and shorts brrrr. This weekend was Reach the Beach the 100 mile bike ride for the American Lung Association. Throughout the day, tired bike riders made their way through the small little town for the anti climactic finish. Ashley and I both agreed we were happy relaxing on a curb watching rather than participating this year. The coolest thing that happened this weekend was the whale sighting! We first noticed the spray from the blowhole and then saw its shiny back surface, so cool. A whale sighting was on Ashley's Bucket List, so we checked it off. We were told by a native Pacific Cityian that it was a humpback and that it had been hangin around the last few days. Even in the relaxing we were able to squeeze in a 10 mile run on the beach running in the sand is hard! This week it is back to tough training because our focus 50k is coming up Memorial Day weekend. The most exciting part is my two clients Chris and Lancia will be running their first Ultramarathon! They are ready both physically and mentally I am expecting a great race out of both of them.

Beautiful and chilly coastal range

This was atop a huge Dune

Can you find Waldo in this one? What about the glasses?

eeeeeeeeeooooo I was whale calling

Running Adventure #508

Has the rain officially left and let summer's sweet beauty arrive for good? Well, I am not sure but what I do know is - that the rain officially left for the day on Saturday and has not returned since. (ok, it is only Sunday, but still!)

Saturday morning, Ry and I headed out to Corvallis, Oregon for the McDonald Forest 50K. We decided to drive down the morning of the race, since it was only about an hour and half away. It turned out to be a great idea. We were able to arrive early and enjoy the sunrise on the way down. Ry made sure to make the coffee extra strong. (Thank God)

Since we had a little bit of time before the start of the race-we went to go sit in the car and get our water bottles ready. While listening to some music and getting pumped for the race-we realized today was really going to be a gorgeous day and in Oregon that means more than anything else. The moment sun is shining through the trees-hearts warm all over the state! It just doesn't get much better.

8am and off to the trails!! For the first 1.2 miles the trail led out on a logging road and quickly moved to singletrack. Perfect! I saw Ryan move ahead with the lead women and thought-if he could stick with them, he would be in good shape (with time). In the first two miles, I regretfully felt shinsplints and for a second thought-uh oh I might be in trouble today. Yet, once I reached the 7-8 mile mark, I really started to warm-up and all the pains started to disappear.

The McDonald Forest really takes you for a ride. Long ups, followed by long downs. At first, the downhill felt great! Fun! Exhilarating! And then the hips, quads and everything else started to kick in. However, it was still nice how the climbs were so much work and the downhill felt like a reward.

Another great reward-the views!! At aid station three, you arrive on top of Dimple Hill-which is also the spot of 18.6 miles. At the 18.6 mile mark-you are left with about 13 miles to go, but none of that mattered after seeing the view at the top of Dimple Hill. You could see for miles and the colors were beautiful. It was at that moment, we saw Oregon at it's finest!! 70 degrees, safe and healthy fun, kind people and breathtaking views... that's what it is all about.

The race ends with a steep downhill-which feels like it lasts for miles... yet the stand said only 1.64 miles left. Soon, I could hear the people cheering and came right into the finish line, running right into Ryan. Ryan was able to finish at 5 hours 3 minutes and I came in around 5 hours 45 minutes, which happened to earn me a mug! woohoo!

The rest of the day was enjoyed in the sunshine with great food and great people. On an even finer note-I'd like to give a Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Mother's out there. I feel like I have become a strong, dedicated and hardworking woman because of having such a strong, dedicated and hardworking Mother. Sometimes all you need is one person in the world to tell you, you can do something and it makes you believe... that person is my Mother. If she believes, I believe. Find the person that believes in you and give them a "thank you." There's nothing in the world like someone who encourages you to be your best. Thank you mom! Mom at Shamrock Run 2009

From Oregon,

Ashley D.

Feed The Warrior

This is my new approach to handling potential clients. I am still working on the stare

Weekly Mileage

Monday- Strength Training at Ballys 1 hour

Tuesday-4 Miles on Nike Berm Wore Vibram Five Fingers

Wednesday- 13.5 Miles two loops of Forest Park 50K hard effort

Thursday- 6 miles WildWood early afternoon easy effort / evening weight training 1 hour at Ballys

Friday- Rest

Saturday- 25 Miles Tillamook State Forest Wilson River Trail thousands of feet of elevation gain and loss

Sunday- 13 Miles Wildwood easy effort

Mileage Total 61.5

notice how hard efforts are usually always followed by easy efforts the reason being this allows the body to absorb the training and recover. This week is going to be all easy efforts because we are preparing for the McDonald Forest 50k. If this was a "focus" race then we would be reducing mileage this week, but because this is merely another "training" race in order to prepare us for the Bear 100. This doesn't mean we will not be putting forth all our effort; it just means we are "training through" the race. Now because your body needs to recover after a hard effort like a 50K race you will notice a significant reduction in total miles (36) next week following the race.

Tillamook Run

Are there any Krols under the bridge?

Today was a 25 mile mountain run on the Wilson River Trail in the Tillamook State Forest. We did this trail a couple of months ago so it was nice to return and notice an improvement in fitness ie running more of the climbs and feeling less beat up on the descents

Takin it all in

Ahhhhh look what was in the Cat Scat a nike watch! these are old you can tell by the gray. My theory is these lions are well fed or else they wouldn't be poopin everywhere so less likely to eat us

It's not an adventure until something goes wrong. Before I knew it my whole butt was soaked because my hydration pack sprung a leak! Gram if you could write to the manufacturer that would be great. Being 12 miles into the mountains without water is no joke. But we rationed what Ash had left so we survived to run another day!

ps We also saw a bald eagle!